Police probe into assault at US rapper's gig

By Deborah Gough

NSW Police have confirmed they are investigating a sexual assault at a gig where US rapper Tyler, the Creator was performing.

A NSW Police spokesman confirmed it was investigating a sexual assault report made by a woman during a concert at the Enmore Theatre on Thursday night. He said no formal statement had been taken yet.

Words should not be taken seriously: Tyler, the Creator.

Police are also investigating a tirade against blogger and campaigner Talitha Stone at the Sydney concert and a Twitter campaign against Ms Stone through Tyler’s 1.7 million followers.

Ms Stone, 24, of Sydney, told Fairfax Media that when she made her complaint to Newtown police on Friday, she was told police were already investigating a ‘‘sexual assault’’ of a woman at the same concert.

Advertisement

Tyler, the Creator, whose work has been criticised for depicting graphic violence against women and homophobic slurs, has said at previous criticism his persona and words should not be taken seriously.

Tyler retweeted a tweet from Ms Stone to his followers after she said she was going to a protest at one of his in-store appearances in Sydney.

In the tweet, she said: ‘‘I think they need educating on #misogyny’’.

‘‘I thought it was pretty tame for one of my tweets,’’ Ms Stone said.

Tyler fans unleashed a barrage of attacks on Ms Stone including threats of sexual violence.

Ms Stone went to the Sydney all-ages gig to ‘‘gather evidence’’ of his lyrics and concerts.

She described the comments as “terrifying and disturbing” abuse, including a line that he hoped her children had ‘‘messed up STDs’’.

He dedicated two songs to Ms Stone including one with a line about punching ‘‘a bitch in her mouth just for talkin’ shit”.

Collective Shout, a name-and-shame campaign group against the objectification of women, has tried to get Tyler’s visa cancelled under the Controversial Visa Applicants laws.

Under the laws, an immigration minister can cancel a person’s visa to Australia if they have a reputation for propagating, vilifying or inciting discord.

The laws allow for a person’s visa to be cancelled if they represent a danger to the Australian community or a segment of that community.

Collective Shout also served a 14,500-signature web petition to the Eatons Hill Hotel on Friday in an attempt to stop the rapper’s final gig on Saturday.

But Robert Comiskey, part-owner Eatons Hill Hotel, told Fairfax Media he met with Collective Shout representatives and told them he could not cancel the gig.

‘‘I informed them we are a venue for hire and that the Frontier Touring Company had hired the venue,’’ Mr Comiskey said.

He said Frontier Touring hired the venue regularly and it was not informed which act would perform.

‘‘We don’t have anything to do with the artists, we just hire it out. I don’t really get to pay any mind to the artists,’’ he said.

Collective Shout did not protest at the Melbourne gig at The Palace Theatre on Friday night.

Co-founder Melinda Tankard Reist said the group was deterred from protesting because of fears for its members’ safety.

‘‘The way that Tyler was whipping up these threats to women and to Talitha we have decided it wasn’t worth the risk to our members,’’ Ms Tankard Reist said.

‘‘He has created a hostile environment for women at his gigs,’’ she said.

She said his response to Ms Stone vindicated its campaign to have his visa revoked.

‘‘Because of the abuse that it has generated and by him re-tweeting to his fans, he is clearly trying to incite his sycophantic fan base,’’ she said.

Ms Tankard Reist said Tyler’s actions by retweeting Ms Stone’s tweet to his 1.7 million followers, and his subsequent attacks against her, he had shown himself to be a ‘‘controversial visa applicant’’.